Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Fear and loathing in America...

(With apologies to the late Hunter S. Thompson)

With the election drawing near, I am beginning to dread turning on the TV. All I hear and see is the fear and hatred of the backward-looking elements of our society. I hear how the folks that show up at Republican rallies are the "real" Americans. I hear how Proposition 8 will "force our children to learn about gay marriage" as if two people loving each other was the moral equivalent of disemboweling a puppy. I am so VERY tired of hearing about people that think if you don't do things as they do, you have no right to exist. I have said before that there is too little love in the world. There is also too little tolerance, civility, polite and considerate behavior, personal responsibility and the basic human virtue of kindness.

We live in a society that invented and refined "road rage". A place where a naked sword is perfectly acceptable television fare but a naked person is pornographic. A place where armored gladiators can hurl their bodies at each other with intent to destroy, but a woman flashes her chest at halftime and it spawns repercussions that we feel to this day. A nation where the followers of a mythical man that preached universal love for your fellow man can support turning a significant portion of the population into second-class citizens.

I just finished watching Obama's half-hour ad. Why is Obama the only one espousing kindness and tolerance? Why are the Democrats the only ones trying to get the majority of Americans a break? My fondest current hope is that America will see through the bullshit that the McCain campaign and the "Yes on 8" campaign are spouting and show up at the polls to make sure that both McCain and "Proposition Hate" go down in flames. We will see in one week.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Politics Redux

As I said a few days ago, the upcoming presidential election is the most important in decades. After eight years that began with a stolen election and got worse from there, we are being asked to make a choice between a war-hero, long-time alleged "maverick" Republican and a new to the scene, charismatic Democrat.

John McCain claims to be a "maverick", but voted with his president 90% of the time. He claims to be a reformer, but wants to continue the Bush administration's war and tax policies. He claims to know how to run America, but then picked as his running mate Sarah Palin, AKA "Caribou Barbie", a relatively unknown, scandal-plagued Governor of the only state in the Union that gives oil money to its' residents. The "Oil Dividend" came to just over $3,200 to every man, woman and child in Alaska in 2008.

Barack Obama is the most charismatic figure in American politics since JFK. Like Kennedy, he backs up his image with one of the sharpest minds in the arena today. He wants us out of Iraq as quickly as is safe and to focus on the REAL target of Afghanistan and Pakistan to dig bin-Laden out of his hiding place. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would be allowed to expire and tax relief would be focused on the lower tax brackets in an Obama administration. To fill in the gap in his foreign-policy experience, Obama selected Joe Biden (Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) to be his VP candidate.

As the campaign has progressed, the "maverick" has proposed plans that sound more and more like the Republican party line and has tried to use that party's "slime and sleaze" tactics of attack ads, character assassination and distraction with petty sniping over discussion of the real issues. The "celebrity" has been hammering home the problems facing our country, his plans to fix them and pointing out the other party's lack of ideas that will help anyone other than corporate America and the very wealthy.

Folks, if the last eight years have taught us nothing else, it has taught us that the office of President of the United States is far too important to fill with a "fishin' buddy". It should go to the brightest bulb on the string, the sharpest knife in the drawer and the one with ALL the sandwiches for the picnic. Please cast your vote for the candidate BEST able to lead this country out of the mess it has gotten itself into. Vote for Barack Obama.

I fear for this nation's survival if we don't.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Season's end...

It is with great regret that I mark the end of the season for my beloved Red Sox. As a baseball fan, it has been a good year. My hometown AAA team, the Sacramento Rivercats won everything there was to win in their division for the second straight year. My National League team, the Giants, actually showed some signs of developing a pitching staff. Combine that with the deep playoff run of the Sox (not to mention that the Yankees got pwned!), and "baseball ben berry, berry good to me".

Baseball has been losing ground to football for several years as the "national pastime" and a lot of people don't know why. The late, great George Carlin summed it up VERY well in his routine "Baseball vs. Football". If you want a great sports-related laugh, check it out.

You were the Grand Master, George. We miss you.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Into the political maelstrom

It is election season, as you all know unless you've been off-planet or under a rock. In addition to the most important presidential election in several generations (more on that later), there is Congress to decide. Most states have various measures on the ballot, and we here in California have an major issue of basic human rights to decide.

A while back, Gavin Newsome (San Francisco's mayor) and the S.F. City Council decided that there was nothing in the California State Constitution that stated that applicants for a marriage license had to be of opposing genders, and ordered the Clerk to act accordingly. The swarm of gay and lesbian couples that obtained marriage certificates, finally equal in the eyes of the law, was nothing sort of astounding. Needless to say, the social conservatives filed suit, the process was stopped and the couples that took advantage of an all too short window immediately filed a countersuit. The California Supreme Court, in one of its' wiser decisions, overturned a previous initiative that tried to limit marriage to heterosexuals only as unconstitutional and Proposition 8 was born. Proposition 8 will alter the California constitution to state that marriage is only legal between one man and one woman.

Since then we have heard how "the will of the voters was overturned" and "churches will be sued over their beliefs" and "gay marriage will be taught in schools" and a metric buttload of other crap about how "marriage has to be defended". The enemy of marriage is not MORE marriage, it is DIVORCE! If you want to "defend" marriage, outlaw divorces. The murder rate will jump, but what can I say.

Why on earth should a loving, committed couple be prevented from all the advantages of a civil marriage, regardless of gender bias? The religious folk say that "God wouldn't approve". Got some news that you won't want to hear, bible-thumpers. Freedom of religion also includes freedom FROM religion. Just because the god-fearing sheep think that non-believers will burn in an imaginary hell does NOT allow them to mold our society to their beliefs. A marriage is not legal until the paperwork is filed with the government, no matter how many god salesmen say otherwise.

I've been married to Cathy for over eight wonderful years. She is not my first wife. My previous marriages ended for different reasons, but not one of them ended because of successful gay and lesbian couples. If two people want to unite their lives they should get all the advantages that the traffic will bear, regardless of whether they are male, female or one of each.

Civil unions aren't the answer either. "Separate, but equal" has never worked and is unconstitutional. There is not now and has never been enough love in the world. Who are we to judge where two consenting adults find it? Folks, I urge you to support equality for everyone. There is NO rational reason why a gay or lesbian couple shouldn't enjoy the same legal benefits AND responsibilities that Cathy and I enjoy. There is also no reason why those couples shouldn't enjoy the same protections that are afforded to those allowed to marry legally.

We say that we are a tolerant society of equals. Prove it. Vote no on Proposition 8 if you are in California and back similar measures if you aren't. Predjudice is illegal. Don't legalize it.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Diving Right In...

Well, here I am. With the encouragement of my lovely wife Cathy, I am jumping in to the blogosphere to share my views and opinions with the world. The title of this missive is a fairly accurate representation of my view of most of the human species. Humans in general and Americans in particular (but by NO means solely) seem to have cornered the market on industrial-grade stupid.

We live in an age where hot coffee has to carry a warning that it is hot so some moron doesn't sue when they drop it in their lap! We live in a place where people are so lazy that you can go out and buy pre-fabricated, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts removed! I used to think that this was the height of lazy until I stumbled across a product in the supermarket the other day. The Mexican baking company, Bimbo, has a product called "Pan Tostado". Genties and Ladlemen of the audio radiance, this product is nothing more than TOAST!!!! We have finally become such a decadent species that we can't even pull out a fracking toaster?

Yet another sign of the apocalypse...